Choose a Szechuan Sauce with some heat and lots of brassicas!! Broccoli, Bok Choy, the works!
From Tiengarden 170 Allen st #1, New York, NY getskinnygovegan

Carrots are luscious shred in traditional salads with a bit of pineapple if you are adventurous. Or, roasted, in winter soups and stews, whole or chopped! Try roasted whole slender carrots, drizzled with green tahini sauce, sprinkled with pomegranate seeds! Presented at greatist.com

The Tiny Farm blog says: Sprint, a new Amsterdam forcing variety (good for growing in challenging conditions) that matures long and slender in a listed 42 days. That’s fast, over two weeks ahead of the quickest regular carrot we grow (the fabulous Nelson).

Simple. Hearty brown basmati rice, speckled with onions, petit peas, and dill; this brown rice pilaf is a simple and tasty dish that can be whipped up as a nutritious and hearty weeknight side. At momtastic.com

Kale is the Queen of Greens! After you wash the leaves of kale, mustard, turnip, or collard greens, tear out the thick center stalk and tough midribs and cut the leaves into smaller, bite-size pieces. Slightly steam or saute. See the whole delicious recipe and others by Karen Ahn!

Please vary these recipes to your heart’s content! Omit what you don’t currently have in your garden, add, replace an ingredient with what you do have or that you love more! In summer make variations to be eaten cold!

The Green Bean Connection started as correspondence for our SoCal Santa Barbara CA USA, Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. All three of Santa Barbara city community gardens are very coastal. During late spring/summer we are in a fog belt/marine layer area most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is. Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

Please reread, scan this, for the many updates I have made. The Bagradas are now here in force, many plants have been swarmed and already lost, including seedling mustard and radishes. YUK and bummer!

California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas gardeners alert!

Per Wikipedia, Bagrada Bugs are native to much of eastern and southern Africa and parts of southern Europe and Asia. They made a sudden appearance in Los Angeles in June, 2008, its first sighting in the Western Hemisphere. It then moved into the cropland of the heavily agricultural Coachella and Imperial Valleys of California, doing damage to cole crops there, especially those grown organically. As of September 2014 it has reached as far north as San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Merced and Inyo counties, and all California counties to the south except Tulare County.

Although spiders and other general predators may feed on the Bagrada bug, it does not have specific natural enemies in the United States. Birds don’t eat these nasty stink bugs.

The only effective substance, so far, that kills them, is one you have to be licensed to use.

Per UC IPM, as an alternative to greenhouses, screened tunnels or floating row cover fabric can provide plant protection in gardens. The mesh of the screening material must be fine enough to exclude the Bagrada bug nymphs and should be elevated so that it does not touch the plants because the bugs can feed through these coverings. The edges of protective covers must also be buried to prevent the bugs from crawling underneath to the plants, and they must be applied beforeBagrada bugs get into the crop and soil.

What some of the local organic farmers are doing is planting mustards, the Bagrada’s most favorite Brassica, as a trap plant. Giant red mustards give them plenty to munch on. If you find mustard transplants at your nursery, buy them without delay! The Bagradas prefer them, so they go there rather than your brocs. You can also plant radishes, another Brassica, as a trap plant. Don’t harvest them, just let them grow to full size.

Plant your trap plants so they are well up BEFORE you put in your broccoli, cauliflower, collards, kale or cabbage.

If you are planting from seed, immediately securely cover with a floating row cover or the babies will be eaten. Recent seed plantings of giant red mustard and radish have literally been mowed by the bugs. If you can find transplants, get them and do the same, cover immediately with a floating row cover. Once the cover is off, keep a dedicated sunny midday watch and remove any Bagradas. You may save your transplants and your other plants. Or, grow transplants at/in home, away from the pest, then keep a keen watch when you plant them out.

If you are a mustard greens or radish eater, you must plant enough as trap plants plus what you hope for to eat. I highly recommend you plant them in various areas well separated from each other. At the community garden I see patches that have been infested, mowed, and areas that haven’t been touched at all. Hope that’s just not a matter of time until they get those next.

The big CON of trap plants is they BRING Bagradas! The other alternative is to remove any Cruciferous plants, like mustard types, radish, all Brassicas, until the weather cools. Then, plant whatever you want!

Mind you, you still have to REMOVE BAGRADAS by whatever means you prefer, or the brocs are next. Bagradas not only move FAST, but are fast growers andreproducers. They make virtual swarms, and when they suck juices from your plant toxicdisease producing stuff gets in your plant. In hot temps, I’ve seen a 1 1/2 foot tall plant go down in 1 to 3 days. White patches start on the leaves, they wilt and the plant dies.

PLEASE Remove infested or diseased leaves immediately. Hold a large bucket lined with a plastic or tightly closeable bag underneath the area you are going to clip. Bagradas instantly drop to the ground the moment you disturb the plant. So you can’t sneak up on them and cover the plant with a plastic bag. The bucket catches them and the leaves. DO NOT lay the leaves or trim on the ground. They lay eggs both on your plant and in the ground. Eggs you might not see hatch quickly, defeating your clipping. Securely tie the clippings and bugs in a plastic bag so they can’t escape, and take them to the TRASH. Do not put them in compost or green waste. Simply moving Bagradas doesn’t work. They fly.

If the infestation is small, in the cool of early morning, while the Bagradas are slow and haven’t had their morning coffee yet, I hold a large tray under an area of the plant, then tap gently, smush the ones that fall onto the tray. Keep doing it in stages until there are no more. Come back in about five minutes and do it again. The ones that fall to the ground quickly go back up the plant. And don’t let the little round black/red instars get away either. They mature quickly and lay more eggs. You could use a bucket of soapy water, but it really isn’t big enough for the size of most plants.

REMOVE MULCH HABITAT from around infested or susceptible plants until the Bagrada season is OVER. They hide out in the mulch, mate like crazy, lay eggs in the ground. They are expert at playing dead, and once you are gone, quite quickly climb back up on the plant. I’ve seen it. Stand very still and wait…sure enough, there they come. That’s your second chance to remove, euphemism for kill, the ones that escape the first round.

PLANTING TIPS I highly suggest biodiversity, interplanting – that’s mixing it up,eveninterplanting different varieties of the same plant (especially broccoli), rather thanmonoculturing – a row of a single kind of plant. With rows of a single plant, the pest or disease simply goes plant to plant and you lose the whole row. This also stops leafminers (typical on soft leaved chard & beets) from going plant to plant. Slows them way down.

Plant so mature plant leaves don’t touch! Stop the ease of transmission. If you can’t help yourself, and go monoculture, plant too close, clip back, harvest, the between leaves so they don’t touch. More is not always better. Dense plantings can literally starve plants that get root bound, that have less access to a healthy allotment of soil food and soil organisms that tickle their roots. Jammed together leaves are not able to get the sun power they need, so there are smaller leaves and less fruits. Snails successfully hide out; mildew and leaf miners can ruin the crop. There are so many reasons to give your plants ample space to live and breathe.

Unfortunately, Brassicas don’t mingle with mycorrhizae fungi. With other plants the fungi network linking your plants is proven that when one plant gets a disease or pest, it warns the neighbor plant. That plant then boosts its own defenses!

You could wait and plant your Brassicas late, from transplants, in October, when the weather has cooled. Bagradas thrive at sustained temps 85 degrees and above.

Here is the link to some additional really excellent information at UC IPM (Integrated Pest Management) published Jan 2014.

You have choices!

Persevere, plant and do what you can. Pray for survival.

Wait until the weather cools, plant late, October works well.

Mix it up! Plant a few Brassicas/mustard/radishes now, some more later. Succession plantings are a wise gardener technique! If a first planting fails, plant another round when conditions have changed. If both plantings succeed, YES, you have a continuous fresh table supply!

Only plant what Bagradas don’t care for and doesn’t attract them for now; plant your Brassicas later when it’s cooler. Greens are super healthy ~ just don’t plant cruciferaes (plants with four-petal flowers/cross) like Mizuna, mustard or turnips. Better not to get those mixed mesclun 6 packs at this time.

Happy Winter Solstice/Yule, Dec 21st!

I like this saying I found at the Old Farmers Almanac: Old Frost, the Silversmith has come: His crisping touch is on the weeds. – Charles Dawson Shanly

And, bless him, his touch will soon be on our veggies! Some will love it; kales are said to taste better after a good frost. Basils, some peppers and other tender plants will fold and die. Gather seeds while you still can. It’s tuck & roll time – ready a stack of covers in case we get some hard freezes. Keep a diligent weather watch. Watering the evening before an anticipated freeze will help your plants withstand damage.

December is winter’s June, harvest time!

Brocs, cauliflowers, peas, are all coming in now, especially if you planted in August, September!

Lettuces are thriving, keep plucking the lower leaves.

Keep harvesting your chard and beet leaves to keep ahead of the leafminers. Don’t over water making the leaves too soft and inviting.

Cabbages take time to get to the stage to form that super head of tight fitted leaves. Don’t despair, they are working on it. Lay down Sluggo or do slug/snail maintenance around your cabbages to keep the pests from damaging your beauties. Can you imagine what the plant would look like if the leaves were spaced out on a stalk?! Pretty tall. Feed lightly during winter to make Nitrogen easily available. It’s cooler, so uptake is slower.

Your favas are busy gathering Nitrogen from the air, putting it into little nodules on their roots. So are your peas, both legumes. They do that! Little to no feeding for them, they make their own N.

If you tuck in kitchen veggie trim, don’t be surprised if a few potatoes (they look like tomatoes, same family) pop up here and there. If you like ‘em, let ‘em come if you have space!

If you have everbearer strawberries you may have few berries after a few warm days. Even a single berry is such a treat!

Collards, kohlrabi and kales are very happy, providing excellent nutrition. You can eat the leaves of all your Brassicas – brocs, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, and, of course, cabbages!

Carrots are coming! Plant another round near your peas! All kinds! Mix the seeds up for surprises later!

Put in some little bunch onion patches here and there but not by your peas! Plant some of those little Italian red ones – so pretty in your salad! How about some garlic chives? Mmm….

Remember, this is THE time to be planting your largest garlic cloves – they need twice the fertilizer, so make a super rich soil for them. If you are so inspired, many plant on Winter Solstice day, Dec 21! Plant skins on, or for more mojo, quicker sprouting, here is the way to prep your cloves Bob Anderson style:

Soak in water and baking soda for 16-24 hours before planting. Soak separate strains separately. (One T soda to 1 gallon water, or a half teaspoon in a cup of water). Remove the skins – start at the bottom being careful not to damage the growing tip OR the bottom, because that’s where the roots grow from!

Just before planting soak nude cloves in rubbing alcohol for 3-5 minutes and plant immediately.

SideDressing – seedlings up 2 to 3 inches get hungry! Liquid fertilizer once a week is quick and easy for them to uptake. Feed your other plants every 6 weeks. That means, sprinkle fertilizer around your plants or down a row, and dig it in a little, especially before a rain! Water it in. Use ½ the strength of your summer feedings. We don’t want a lot of tender new growth that a frost would take. Some people love their manures, others love Island Seed & Feed’s Landscape Mix, and some love their stuff that comes in a pretty box! Plants love a fish/kelp mix. Try the powdered version for a little less stink. If you decide to do foliar teas, pick a warm, dry, or breezy morning so your plants will dry well before evening. Do what makes you and your plants happy! If you haven’t been fertilizing, think about how hard your plant is working. Big brocs, for example. When it starts to head, when plants start to produce, that’s your cue to help them along.

Gophers. You can still put in wire protective baskets or barriers, especially now while the soil is softer after the rains. If you see a fresh mound, trap immediately.Aphids? Watch for curled leaves, squish or wash any or the colony away immediately.White flies. Flush away, especially under the leaves. They are attracted to yellow, so keep yellowing, yellowed leaves removed.Slimy Slugs, Snails. Sluggo before they even get started, right when your seedlings begin to show, when you put your transplants in! Once stopped, there will be intervals when there are none at all. If you notice tiny children snails, lay down another round.

I used to be a total mulcher, covered my whole veggie garden. I’ve adjusted my coastal SoCal mulch* thinking to match the plant! Same goes for composting in place. That’s a good idea for some areas of your garden, other areas not at all!

If you are coastal SoCal, in the marine layer zone, your mulch, or composting in place, may be slowing things down a lot more than you realize. The best melons I’ve ever seen grown at Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden were on bare hot dry soil in a plot that had a lower soil level than most of the other plots. The perimeter boards diverted any wind right over the top of the area, the soil got hot! It was like an oven! So, let it be bare! No mulch under melons, your winter squash, pumpkins except under the fruits to keep them off the ground, clean, above soil level insects.

For more heat, put up a low wind barrier – straw bales, a perimeter of densely foliated plants, a big downed log, be creative. Permeable shrubs are the most effective wind barriers. Let your peppers and jicama get hot! Eggplant are Mediterranean heat lovers! Okra is Southern, hot.

Tomatoes need dryer soil to avoid the verticillium and fusarium wilt fungi, no more than an inch of loose straw to allow airflow at soil level but keep heat down. Let ‘em dry nearby; water a foot or more away from the central stem. Let that tap-root do its job, get the water below the fungi, wilt/blight zone, the top 6 to 8 inches. Drier soil is not comfy for slugs.

Get cucumbers up on a trellis, then you won’t need mulch to keep the cukes clean and bug free, but rather because they have short roots. Preplant radish to repel cucumber beetles when your cukes bloom. The radish will provide a living mulch as their leaves shade the cuke roots. Eat a few radish, but let the rest grow out to keep repelling the beetles. In time you can gather their seeds. Plant heat tolerant lettuces at their feet to act as living mulch. They both like plenty of water to keep them growing fast and sweet, so they are great companions. Slugs and snails like peas and lettuce. You will need to use a little Sluggo or its equivalent if you feel comfortable to use it.

Clearly, no mulch, more heat, equals more water needed. In drought areas, plant in basins below the main soil level. Use your long low flow water wand to water only in the basin at the roots of your plant. Fuzzy leaved plants, tomatoes and eggplant, prefer not being watered on their leaves anyway. Since there is no raised mound, there is no maintenance needed for berms surrounding the basin, but you will need to keep the basin from filling in. Plant companion littles and fillers in the basin around the base of bigger plants. They will enjoy the cooler damper soil and provide living mulch to keep that soil more cool!

LIVING MULCH is triple productive! It mulches, provides companion plant advantages, and is a crop all at the same time! Closely planted beets, carrots, garden purslane, radish, turnips act as living mulch to themselves and bigger companion plants you plant them by. The dense canopy their leaves make lets little light in, keeps things moist. Cucumbers under broccoli are living mulch while the brocs repel cucumber beetles! If you cage or trellis your beans, most of the plant is up getting air circulation, keeping them dryer, more mildew free, if you don’t plant too densely. They, cucumbers and strawberries, also have short feet that need to stay moist, so do mulch them – your beans and cukes with clean chop and drop, straw or purchased mulch.

Zucchini, doesn’t care. They are a huge leaved plant, greedy sun lovers, that are self mulching. But, you can feed their vine up through the largest tomato cages, cut off the lower leaves and plant a family of lettuces, carrots, onions, salad bowl fixin’s or basil on the sunny side underneath! Especially preplant radish to repel cucumber beetles! All of them like plenty of water, so everyone is happy.

Cooler crops, over summering Broccoli, Kale, Chard like moist and cooler, so mulch deeply very early in spring.

Boards as mulch! Your strawberries like slightly acidic soil, and acidic mulch – redwood or pine needles. Also, you can lay down boards between mini rows of strawberries to keep the soil moist under the boards, the soil between the rows that the berry roots have access to. It’s a variation on pallet gardening. The advantages of using boards are you can space or remove your boards so you can easily access the soil to add amendments, you can add or remove boards to make a bigger or smaller patch, you can make the boards the length you need or want, space them as needed per the plant. Planting between boards can be used for lots of other plants too if you won’t be planting an understory! As for your strawberries, as they leaf out and get bigger, in addition to the boards, they will be living mulch for themselves!

If you are going to mulch, do it justice. Besides wanting to cool your soil, keep moisture in, prevent erosion, keep your crop off the soil and away from bugs, and in the long-term, feed your soil, mulching is also to prevent light germinating weed seeds from sprouting. Put on 4 to 6 inches minimum, tomatoes being the exception. Less than that may be pretty, but simply make great habitat for those little grass and weed seeds! Mulch makes moist soil, where a rich multitude of soil organisms can thrive, including great fat vigorous earthworms! You see them, you know your soil is well aerated, balanced, doing great!

Mulching is double good on slopes and hillsides. Make rock lined water-slowing ‘S’ terrace walk ways snaking along down the hillside. Cover your berms well and deeply to prevent erosion and to hold moisture when there are drying winds. Be sure to anchor your mulch in windy areas -biodegradable anchor stakes are available. Carolyn Csanyi has some clever ideas on how to keep your mulch on a slope. Plant fruit trees, your veggies on the sunny side under them, on the uphill side of your berms. Make your terrace wide enough so you don’t degrade the berms by walking on them when you harvest.

If you mulch, make it count! Mulch with an organic degradable mulch. Chop and drop disease and pest free plants to compost in place, spread dry leaves. Spread very well aged manures. When you water, it’s like compost or manure tea to the ground underneath. Lay out some seed free straw – some feed stores will let you sweep it up for free! If you don’t like the look of that, cover it with some pretty purchased mulch you like. Use redwood fiber only in areas you want to be slightly acidic, like for strawberries or blueberries.

COMPOSTING IN PLACE Build soil right where you need it. Tuck green kitchen waste out of sight under your mulch, where you will plant next. Sprinkle with a little soil if you have some to spare, that inoculates your pile with soil organisms; pour on some compost tea to add some more! Throw on some red wriggler surface feeder worms. Grow yarrow or Russian comfrey (Syphytum x uplandicum) near your compost area so you can conveniently add a few sprigs to your pile to speed decomposition. It will compost quickly, no smells, feeding your soil excellently! If you keep doing it in one place, a nice raised bed will be built there with little effort!

You don’t have to wait to plant! Pull back a planting space, add compost you have on hand or purchased, maybe mix in a little aged manure mix, worm castings, your favorite plant specific amendments. Sprinkle some mycorrhizal fungi on your transplant’s roots (exception is Brassicas), and plant! Yes!

*Mulch is when you can see distinct pieces of the original materials. Finished compost is when there are no distinct pieces left, the material is black and fluffy and smells good.

The Green Bean Connection started as correspondence for the Santa Barbara CA USA Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. All three of Santa Barbara’s community gardens are very coastal. During late spring/summer we are often in a fog belt/marine layer most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is. Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

Cucumber Flowers

June is another grand month for planting, more heat, fast growth. Plant in spots that have already finished; plant for succession, a continued harvest of your favorites!If you couldn’t take advantage of April or May, step up to it now! Seeds are good, transplants are faster if your summer palate is salivating! Hotties like corn, cucs, beans, jicama, melons, okra, peppers, pumpkins, New Zealand spinach, all squashes! I’ve planted corn in August and got great October corn! Plant tasty year-rounds – beets, carrots, chard, cilantro, radish, turnips. Tomatoes with basils now and next month. More tomatoes if you will be dehydrating for camping, winter stews, snacks. Try something new –maybe something you can’t get at the store!

Why are we discussing okra in June? Because it is time to plant okra seed for fall gardens. Depending on the variety, first pods are ready for harvest about 2 months after planting. If you plant in mid-June, you will not harvest until mid-August. If you wait until later, cool nights will decrease production. Of course, many gardeners have okra already growing that will continue to produce until frost. If these plants are too tall, they should now be cut back to a height of 4 feet so that re-branching and production will occur before cool weather arrives. If you are an okra lover, it’s double your pleasure because it is in the hibiscus/hollyhock family and makes breathtakingly lovely flowers! Okra is like little stars in a salad; you cut it in thin slices across the raw pod. Or cook it traditionally, steamed, in stew, jambalaya over rice, or deep fried. If you are driving through Mojave, there’s a restaurant on the main drag that fries it to perfection! Perhaps the most important thing to know is okra has to be harvested while small to medium, while tender. Otherwise, you end up with an unchewable tough monster. Big is not better, trust me.

Biodiversity really works! Mix it up, spread out your plantings. Solid blocks (except for corn for pollination) of one plant or overplanting same kind plants in leaf touching rows are particularly susceptible to pest and disease spread, gopher loss. Lose one, lose ‘em all. To further confuse pests, pop in some herbs, basil with tomatoes, marigolds, as an understory in the between spaces! Grow arugula and lettuces in the shade of your mighty corn!

Two on one trellis! Check out the good size dark cucumbers hanging, and the ‘hammock’ supported melons!

April 15, 2011 I had my first encounter with a huge male carpenter bee – see image! Awesome! They are all fuzzy and yellow (not all black like the females), sometimes called Teddy Bear Bees, and I could totally see why! They hover closely and look you right in the eye, buzz off and come back for another look! They are the largest bees found in California, don’t sting. What a pollinator!

Harvesting is like pruning, no? So eat! Keep your plant producing by steady picking and plucking, no storing on the vine! Otherwise, it thinks it did its job, made those seeds, and folds up camp! Keep your broccoli harvested. If you see flower stalks, cut them off ASAP, back to where new shoots can come. If you are getting too many sprouts, cut them back further to slow them down. Eat those bitty zuchs, flowers and all! Use those herbs you planted – basils, thyme, sage, oregano. Just a few of their leaves rubbed, mashed, steeped, chopped, can add luscious flavors! Make pretty bouquet garni for giveaways! Parsley is SO good for you, and beautiful in your garden! Its second year it goes to seed, a biennial. Pull and cook the tasty roots in your soup, or let a plant or two go to seed to feed beneficial insects and reseed your patch.

Get out last year’s garden notes if you made any, and review for varieties you liked, where you got ‘em, how much to plant!

CORN!
Plant in blocks, not rows, for pollination. When tassels bloom, break off pieces and whap them on the silks! Each silk is one kernel, each needs one grain of pollen!
Corn hybridizes – plant only one variety, or varieties that don’t have pollen at the same time. This is pretty much not doable at a community garden since everyone is planting all kinds at any time, so if you harvest seeds, don’t expect true results!

PreSoak and/or PreSprout for 100% success! Click here for details! Per eHow: How to Soak Watermelon Seeds in Milk Before Growing. Sometimes the seed coat carries a virus, and the proteins in milk will also help deactivate the virus. Read more

Plant successively! If you put in transplants now, also put in seeds for an automatic 6 week succession! Plant different varieties (except of corn if you want true seed – see above)!

If you overplant, thin for greens, or transplant when they are about 2 to 3 inches high. Lettuce, carrots, onions. Too many stunt each other. OR, this from Santa Barbara Westsiders Lili & Gabor: Overplant mesclun on purpose, then mow the little guys! If you are at home, plant densely in a planter bowl, cut off, leaving 1 ½” of stem still in your soil. They will regrow, you will have several months’ supply of tasty baby greens. Plant two or three bowls for more people or more frequent harvest! Give a bowl as a gift!

TomatoesPlant for excellence – Throw a handful of bone meal in your planting hole along with a handful of nonfat powdered milk, worm castings, compost/manures, mix it all up with your soil. Sprinkle the roots of your transplant with mycorrhizal fungi! That’ll do it! Stand back for bounty!
REMOVE LOWER LEAVES OF TOMATOES Wilt prevention. Water sparingly or not at all after about a foot tall. Wilt comes from the ground up the leaves and is airborne. Remove any leaves that touch the ground or could get water splashed. Don’t remove suckers – airborne fungi can enter open wounds.
Sorry, NO HEIRLOOMS if you know the soil has the wilts. Heirlooms don’t have resistance. Get varieties with VF on the tag or that you know have resistance/tolerance.
Mid day, rap tomato cages or the main stem, to help pollination. 55 degrees or lower, higher than 75 at night, or 105 in daytime = bud drop. Not your fault. Grow early varieties first that tolerate cooler temps.
Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden Kevin and Mary Smithhave had successes with 2 blight resistant/tolerant determinate varieties, New Hampshire Surecrop, a 78 day, great tasting slicer/canner, and Legend, a very early 68 day! Ask for them, and more Jetsetters, with unbelievable VFFNTA resistance/tolerance, at your nursery. See Tomatoes and Wilts here at the Green Bean Connection Blog for a list of additional resistant/tolerant varieties and tips!